| Home | > | List of families | > | Dryopteridaceae | > | Dryopteris | > | wallichiana |
| Synonyms: | |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | Very rare |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
Rhizome erect, forming a caudex of up to 16 × 8 cm. Fronds arising in a whorl, arching, firmly herbaceous. Stipe up to 20 cm long, matt brown, densely covered with brown scales of 2 kinds. Lamina up to 1.2 × 0.38 m, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic in outline, deeply bipinnatifid, pinnae gradually reduced towards the base. Pinnae c. 20 × 2.5 cm, sessile, set at 90° to the rhachis, narrowly oblong-attenuate, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate lobes rectangular, c. 12 × 5 mm, apices cut-off squarely, serrate, lateral margins subentire, glabrous but with few linear scales on the margins, costules and costae. Rhachis densely covered with dark brown scales. Sori round, up to 12 per lobe; indusium entire, glabrous, kidney-shaped. |
| Notes: | This is a tall, bipinnatifid fern with distinctly cut-off square lobes, not to be confused with other species of Dryopteris. |
| Derivation of specific name: | wallichiana: named after N. Wallich (1786-1854), born in Denmark, superintendent of the Calcuta Botanic Gardens in 1815. |
| Habitat: | Known only from a single locality in continental Africa where it was found in a shaded ravine. |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1980 m (approx) |
| Worldwide distribution: | Zimbabwe. |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | E |
| Growth form(s): | Terrestrial. |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Burrows, J.E. (1990). Southern African Ferns and Fern Allies. Frandsen, Sandton. Pages 308 - 309. (Includes a picture). Jacobsen, W.B.G. (1983). The Ferns and Fern Allies of Southern Africa. Butterworths, Durban and Pretoria. Pages 441 - 442. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 6. Roux, J.P. (2001). Conspectus of Southern African Pteridophyta. Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report 13 Page 124. Roux, J.P. (2009). Synopsis of the Lycopodiophyta and Pteridophyta of Africa, Madagascar and neighbouring islands Page 124. Schelpe, E.A.C.L.E. (1970). Pteridophyta Flora Zambesiaca Page 225. |
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